Nico's story
by nobody That's me
Summary: <html><head></head>This is my first fan fiction so please read even though the summary sucks. After the giant war, Favonius ,who Nico met before he faced Cupid, is given a job to find someone for Nico. However, as things progress Nico and Favonius grow closer, but Favonius is forbidden from falling in love. Dundundun.</html>
1. Chapter 1

Favonius' POV Prologue

I love ice cream. Being the west wind, I'm always a bit warm and ice cream is cold and refreshing. One of the best things about working for Cupid is there's an ice cream cart near his home. Just ahead of me right now.

Mortals surround me, walking at their leisure and stepping around my giant wings that they can't see. The girl working at the ice cream cart blushes when she sees me. I get that a lot being devilishly handsome and all. My mortal form is a tall, lean, young man about 18 years old with jet black, curly hair and warm brown eyes. The young (and sometimes old) mortal women just fall over themselves when they see me.

I hand the mortal girl a dollar and she gives me an ice cream sandwich. Cupid only gave me a 5 minute break so I guess I'll have to eat while I head back to Cupid's home: Diocletian's birthplace and my work place.

Salona (cupid's home) is a nice city even if it is ancient and falling apart. I make my way past the ruins of temples and rows of columns and sit down on the hill. Cupid will be here any moment and I'm determined not to be caught off guard this time. So I relax on the hillside and pretend I'm not prepared. My ice cream bar is now just a sticky mess held together by two bars of chocolate. Therefore I am forced to cram what's left of it into my mouth before it gets all over me. So now it's all over my face. What a mess. I'm still wiping off the childish mess on my face when the entire aura of the city changes and I am thrown off of my feet (or off my butt since I was sitting) Cupid chuckles.

"After working for me so long you still have not learned to prepare yourself against me," Cupid muses. I morph from my mortal form to the literal west wind. Cupid's invisible so it's only fair that I be invisible too. He can't touch me if I'm not solid anyway. "How can you ever avoid falling in love, if you can't even see it coming?" Cupid's question didn't follow up with a blow now that I was just a breeze, but his words hurt just as much. More even.

After I killed my boyfriend, Hyacinthus, Apollo took the new of the horrible deed that I'd done to the other main gods. Apollo couldn't directly take revenge on me, but he could get the gods to punish me. And so they elected that I be forbidden to ever fall in love. I thought this was a bit harsh. All of them had done something horrible to mortals at least a dozen times, even ones they had cared about too. Not to mention, their punishment was impossible. You can't just _stop _yourself from falling in love. Love is the kind of fall that happens when you stand on the edge of a cliff and the ground crumbles beneath your feet. Nearly impossible to stop. And unfortunately my wings do not apply to this metaphor so I wouldn't be able to fly away and save myself. Anyway, the irony is, the gods forbade me from falling in love, but I work for a love god who never tires of mocking my awkward position.

Cupid appears in front of me, all handsome and slightly evil looking.

"I have a job for you," he says. "Nico di Angelo proved himself to me when he faced me a year ago. I want you to end his suffering."

I blink. "Um, you want me to kill him?"

Cupid sighed. "_No. _I want you to find someone for him."

This wasn't in the job description. I brought people who sought love to Cupid. I wasn't supposed to find their OTP. But he's the boss, so I just say, "With whom?"

"That is for you to decide."

I nod and turn to leave but Cupid calls, "And Favonius?"

"Yes master?"

"You do remember Hyacinthus?"

I grit my teeth. "Yes master." Of course I remembered. No one else remembers as clearly as I do. It replays in my head every night after all.

"Good," Cupid says. "We wouldn't want another accident." And with that Cupid disappeared, leaving me to wonder what in Hades was he planning.

Chapter 1 Nico's POV

Jason's walking towards me annoying determination radiating off of him the way death radiates off of the dying. He's smiling a perfectly proportioned smile that he probably practices in front of the mirror just in case he has to pretend to be friends with someone who hates him. I'm one of the only one who doesn't idolize the son of Jupiter so that smile's normally directed at me.

"Hey Nico. How are you?" Jason asked.

"Better," _I'd be a lot better if you'd leave. _"I can walk around and everything now." The infirmary finally let me leave a week ago after an excruatiatingly long month of sitting in bed. I've never been so worn out from shadow traveling. And I've been pretty drained from shadow traveling before. When it was finally over I passed out for the umpteenth time and woke up with too many (like one or two people) taking care of me. I was tired of people taking care of me. "I only wish I could be let alone," I explain with a pointed glare. Jason ignored the hint and looked me over with a concerned look. There was a time when my silent, almost telepathic, threats scared him. But I guess I used them on him too much and he grew immune to them. Done studying me, Jason nodded his approval of my recovered health (as if I needed his approval) and asked, "Are you playing capture the flag tonight?"

"No"

"Why?"

"Because it's none of your business." I was already giving up. Jason was too frigging stubborn.

"You can't just hide from the world. You have to come out of the shadows and you might find that people accept you more than you think."

Yeah right. _Come out of the shadows. _How many times has he already said that? I will do no such thing. I won't be coming out of the closet either if that's what he's trying to say.

"Leave me alone," I say and turn my back to him. Jason grabs my arm. "Let go! What did I say about grabbing me?" I yell. He's too strong for me.

"Stop running away!" Jason yells back. We're attracting attention now. I stop struggling. "I'm not running away," I explain. "just getting away from an annoying hero who thinks he's my friend." Jason let's go shrinks back like he was actually hurt that I told him what he already knew. I run away.

There's too many people surrounding me as I run to my cabin. Most of them get out of the way. I bump into some of the slow ones who glare at me. Whatever. No one likes me here anyway. I reach my cabin and push the door open. My sister Hazel and her boyfriend Frank jump a little at my abrupt arrival. They're not really supposed to be in the cabin together, since it's against the rules. But it's Hazel. Hazel grew up in the 30's, only a few years before me, when everyone had sticks up their asses. No sex before marriage, no races you weren't familiar with, no gays. And Frank looks uncomfortable enough sitting on a bed with Hazel that I don't tell him to back up.

"Hi Nico! Do you want to sit with us?" Hazel said and gave Frank a meaningful glance. Frank cleared his throat, "Yeah! You should hang out with us," Frank said trying to sound sincere.

"No thanks. I was just…getting my sword."

"Oh. Are you playing capture the flag?"

"No," I said flatly. "Just practicing." Hazel frowned at me. She's been trying to get me to be more social and spend time with people more. I love her for trying but I wish she wouldn't. "Okay," Frank said. I grabbed my sword and hurried out. I might as well practice now. I'm not sure I'm strong enough to summon the dead so I head to the sword arena.

The arena is cold. Which is a good thing to me since I'm wearing all black on a sunny day. That is the only good thing. Percy's here. Percy stopped shredding the dummy he was working on when I walked in.

"Hey Nico." Wow. Third time I've heard that in one day.

"Hey," I mumbled back, trying to show as little emotion as possible. Which is pretty hard, since the mere sight of Percy fills me with emotion. Like pain, regret, love, and a lot of other really annoying teenage emotions. I hate being 15. It was so much easier being 10. At that time, when I saw Percy I just thought about holding his hand or giving him a little chaste kiss on the cheek. I could easily write that off as "friendly", but now what I thought about when I saw Percy was slightly less innocent and a lot harder to ignore.

I tried to step around Percy but he blocked me.

"Training alone?" he asks. I nod reluctantly. "We should train together then!" Percy says. Oh _hades _no. Being that close to Percy while he was sparring and probably displaying perfect muscles was not going to help me now.

"No thanks" I say.

"Oh come on. I'll go easy on you."

_I'll go easy on you? _Gods! Does he realize how annoying and demeaning it is when he treats me like I'm still a child? I don't want him to go easy on me! I _want _to like girls. I _want _to hate Percy. But as Bianca used to say, you can't always get what you want. I always hated it when she said that. Because it's true.

I meet Percy's sea green eyes with my dark brown ones and allow some of my anger seep into my voice. "I'd really rather train alone Percy," Percy looks hurt and he takes a step back like I actually physically hurt him. I don't care. I do _not _care. Yes I do, I'm going to regret this.

"Alright I can train with you for a little while," I say reluctantly.

Percy grins at me and moves into position to fight me. He can go easy on me if he likes. That doesn't mean I'll go easy on _him. _

Our blunt practice swords clang together and soon we are both in a daze as our trained bodies take over what we need to do. Sometimes I have trouble focusing when Percy's around (my ADHD's fault. Not mine) but when I'm fighting I'm pretty good at not getting stabbed because I was distracted by Percy's eyes.

I swing at Percy's head and he ducks. The force of my swing throws me off balance and before I crash into Percy, he grabs my arm, uses my momentum to push me onto the ground, and place his sword on my throat. I arch my head back trying to keep my throat from pressing into the sword too hard. I'm gasping for breath and for a panicky moment I can't breathe and it feels like I'm back in that bronze jar in Rome. Then Percy lifts his sword and I can breathe. I take Percy's hand when he offers to help me up and we stand face to face. I can feel Percy's breath on my face. He's too close. It's too hard for me not to lean forward and kiss him but somehow I manage to turn away quickly and pick up the blunt sword.

"Good job," I say with my back still turned to him while I put away the blunt sword away.

"You're leaving already?" Percy asks.

"Yeah. Thanks for sparring with me."

"Are you going to participate in capture the flag tonight?"

"No."

"Well you'll at least come to the goodbye campfire right?"

"No. Wait what?"

Percy blinks at me, "Um, remember? Now that the 2 camps are at peace everyone can stay where they want. Most people want to stay here, but some of the seven want to stay at Camp Jupiter. Tomorrows the day they leave. Annabeth and I are leaving."

I completely forgot. I knew Hazel and Frank were going back tomorrow, but I forgot more people were going. I hadn't really thought about going to the campfire to say goodbye. I wasn't close to any of the demigods who lived at Camp Half Blood.

"So are you coming?" Percy asked again.

"Okay," I answered without thinking. I was busy thinking about what I was going to do. Was I even going to stay anywhere?

"Do you know where you're going to stay Nico? You can stay wherever you want."

"Um, I'll think about it." I left and almost managed to not look back at Percy.

Everyone gathered around the campfire after Capture the Flag for their final bonfire together. The fire reflected the demigod's moods. Bright orange and dark purple. Everyone was happy to find a place to belong, but they were sad to leave their friends. I'm pretty sure I contributed to the darker colors in that fire. Hestia looked up from the flames and gave me a knowing look and I tried to cheer up.

I decided to stay at Camp Jupiter. I would be with Hazel my sister and Reyna who had grown to be like a sister to me. I looked over at Hazel. She smiled at me happy that I was going with her. My eyes moved to Percy. He was preoccupied with kissing Annabeth. They smiled every time they paused for air. I quickly looked away and my eyes didn't move up from my converse until the singing stopped and the campfire was over.

So many people cried. Annabeth and Piper hugged and sobbed. They hugged Hazel too. Piper's staying at camp half blood so they won't see her much. Jason and Percy hugged the way guys do, slapping each others backs. All around everyone was a mess. I stood at the edge of the crowd watching. I didn't cry because I wasn't leaving anything behind. But something still made me feel uneasy.

Hazel walked over to me and hugged me. As we were leaving for our cabin, Hazel asked, "Who's that" I followed her gaze and saw Hestia.

"Hestia," I answered. "She's the Greek goddess of the hearth."

Hazel's eyes widened. "A goddess?" she said sounding amazed. "But she looks so…young." She does look very young. And lonely.

"Would you like to meet her?" I ask Hazel. She turns and studies me. She's done this a lot lately. She loves me but she doesn't understand me.

"Alright," Hazel says and we walk over to Hestia.

Hestia looks up and smiles warmly at us. I bow and hazel does the same.

"Hello again lady,"

"Hello again Nico di Angelo and hello Hazel Levesque."

"Hi," Hazel says affection for the goddess who looks like a little girl showing in her voice. Hazel loves children. I know she'll be a good mother. "I read about you at Camp Jupiter. I thought it was so brave that you gave up your throne for Bachus, I mean Dionysus."

Hestia smiled again, "You are kind Hazel I like that about you. It wasn't brave though, I just did what I could to keep my family together." Hestia turned to me then. "I'm sure Nico would do whatever it takes to keep his family together too." Hazel nods in agreement but I suddenly felt really exposed like there was a spotlight pointed at me. I stared at my shoes again. I'm not very brave. I run when I don't want to handle things, but I do think I would do anything for Hazel. I had for Bianca. So why did I feel so guilty?

"Well," said Hestia interrupting my thoughts, "You have to get up early tomorrow. I don't want to keep you up too late." Hazel smiled at Hestia again, "Thank you Hestia. I hope I see you again." We got up but Hestia said "Actually, if you don't mind, I'd like to speak to Nico for a minute?" I froze. Did I do something wrong? Hazel agreed and before I could react she left.

"Please sit down Nico. You've done nothing wrong," Hestia soothed. I sat across from her stiffly.

Hestia looked me straight in the eyes and stayed staring at me until I started to feel even more uncomfortable.

"Um, you wanted to tell me something?" I asked.

"Yes. I was wondering how well you are dealing with things right now."

I shifted in my seat uncomfortably. Was this going to be like another therapy session with Jason in which she tries to get me to come out? "Ok I guess," I answer.

Hestia frowns. "I am not talking about Percy, Nico. Where have you chosen to stay?"

"Um, Camp Jupiter?"

"Are you sure you're happy with that choice?"

"Um I think so. I'll be with Hazel"

Hestia smiles again, "Your sister, I like her. And as I said I'm sure you would do anything for her, but you have to live for yourself too. You can't live your life to make her happy. So I want to know if this is really the choice you want to make right now."

My eyes wander to my shoes again. I'm feeling guiltier by the second. I understand that she's trying to help me but I don't know why. I don't know _what. _Now that she mentions it though, I don't think I want to go to Camp Jupiter. I shake my head slowly.

"I told Hazel I would stay," is all I can manage.

"And maybe, you will someday. But are you ready to commit, to belong somewhere again?"

No. I'm not. I can't. I don't know how. I haven't stayed in one place since I was 10. And before then I didn't really have a home. Bianca was my home and I lost her.

My voice comes out hoarse when I say, "I only know how to run away from things. I wanted to give Hazel a home when I saw her in Hades. She deserved that, but I don't know how make a home for myself." Hestia's palm is warm on my cheek.

"That's alright," she says softly. "You are strong Nico di Angelo."

I look up at her and she continues, "You have had a hard life and you have made it through a series of obstacles all on your own. Not many people can do that. But most people know how to lean on others and you do not. Learn to do that. Find where you belong. After everything you deserve that."

My vision goes blurry and I realize I'm crying. I hate that I can't control my own emotions. I try to box it up, but it ends up erupting from me like a volcano eventually.

"Why are you trying to help me?" I ask.

"Because I care about you. You are a kind boy even if others especially yourself do not recognize it. I saw it the very first day you came to camp and you spoke to me. No one ever thinks of me, but you did. This is my way of thanking you. Now go to bed. You have a big decision to make." I obeyed and Hestia stood up on the tips of her toes and kissed me on the forehead. It felt like a blessing like when the good witch kissed Dorothy to give her protection in The Wizard of Oz. Bianca read that to me once.

"Sleep well Nico di Angelo."

Hazel's still awake when I step into our cabin.

"Are you ok? You look a little pale. What did Hestia tell you?"

"I'm alright. Hestia just helped me realize something."

Hazel nods satisfied. She looks so happy. She's completely oblivious of the choice I'm about to make. She thinks I'm going to Camp Jupiter with her and I don't want to tell her I'm not. So I say goodbye to her in the only way I can without telling her. She'll understand when I'm gone.

"Hazel I just wanted to say I'm so grateful I found you that day. I was sad and lonely because Bianca left, but I found you. I'm proud to be your older brother Hazel."

Hazel looks even happier and I feel even guiltier.

"I'm glad you found me too. I grew up an only child, but I always wanted siblings. Now I have you and I wouldn't wish for anyone else to have found me that day," Hazel says. I feel stupidly happy when she says that even though I'm not sure it's true. I'm her only other relative besides Hades. But if this was the 30's she'd have tons of siblings. I'd hardly stand out and if my secret got out I don't know if she'd still wish it was me who found her.

I kiss her cheek and say goodnight and I'll see her in the morning. I won't and I hate myself for being such a liar.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for the wait anyone who's reading this! I've been busy with high school stuff. But with my great apologies I give you chapter 2. Happy late Halloween!**

Nico's POV

Hazel is still asleep when I wake up. The whole camp is. I move quietly, matching the silence of the entire camp. The blood red sheets on my bunk rustle too loudly when I get up. The buses come to pick up the immigrating demigods at 7:00. I don't know how much I have left so I better hurry. I grab the black backpack I keep under the bunk for whenever I need to run away. I've used it a lot and haven't grown any fonder of it.

I only pack the things I need: money (drachmas and mortal cash), extra clothes, fake ID, and of course, my iPod. I sling my stygian iron sword over my back and tug on my new aviators jacket.

My old one got torn up due to a werewolf attack between a shadow jump last year. Reyna bought me a new one for my fifteenth birthday. It was the first time a non-family member bought me anything for my birthday.

Hazel is still asleep when I leave.

It's dark outside. In the way early mornings are. I can hear birds singing because they're happy to be awake and alive. I'm not. I could go back, back to sleep, and forget I ever planned on running away. But no. I shuffle on, still drowsy and tired. I only make it halfway before I hear someone call my name.

"Nico!"

I turn slowly, regretting my choices in life. Of course, it's Jason. It's always Jason!

"What are you doing?" Jason asks. "The buses don't get here till 7:00."

"I know," I answer quickly. "I'm just shadow traveling early. I don't want to ride the buses with everyone. You know too many people…"

"No you're not."

That stopped me in my tracks. I thought that was a pretty plausible excuse and I didn't think Jason was smart enough to see through it.

"You're running away again aren't you?" Jason demands.

"No! I told you I…" It was clear I wasn't going to convince Jason of anything else.

"Okay yes. You're right," I give in, staring at the soles of my shoes…again.

"I really was planning on going to Camp Jupiter," I continue. "But I realized I don't want to. I wouldn't be happy there and I wouldn't be happy here either."

Jason's angry expression melts and turns into pity. "I'm sorry Nico. I just thought it would help… I thought –" He clears his throat uncomfortably. He was expecting a fight, which he could handle. But he wasn't expecting this. He wasn't expecting me to concede, to confide in him.

I decide to be the one to break the silence.

"Thank you. For trying to help. It just…I need time to think. I just need a little time."

Jason gulps like he's swallowing a little ball of the emotion I just loaded on him. Then he meets my eyes and smiles.

"Okay," he says. "I won't stop you then. I understand. Just promise me you'll figure everything out so you can be happy."

"I swear on the river styx." It's dangerous to make such a serious oath for something like this and it's clear Jason's shocked by my daring decision. But this way, I'll have to be happy. That or die and I'd rather be happy. Before I can say anything Jason gives me bear hug like we're best bros. Okaaaay. I know it was a "tender" moment but I'm not sure I'm okay with this. What the heck, I hug him back anyway. He's earned it.

I step into the shadows. As I dissolve into the darkness I think maybe Jason is my friend after all.

There's someone standing way too close to me when appear wherever it is that I shadow traveled to. A tall, strong, someone whom I bump into. I stumble backwards and look up at the person who was in the way. His face is unpleasantly familiar with dark wavy hair that sweeps over his forehead, a relaxed composure, and wings. Favonius the wind god.

I unsheathe my sword before Favonius can react, push him against the nearest vertical surface- a building, and pin my sword against his throat. It registers a bit late that he could just turn into wind and disappear, but apparently this still hasn't registered this because he pushes against the wall away from my sword and tries not to gulp.

"What are you doing here," I snarl.

It registers! Favonius disappears into thin air (literally) leaving me pointing a sword at a wall.

"Nothing," Favonius answers casually. I feel stupid facing the wall so I swivel around to face him. He hasn't unsheathed his jagged sword but I'm still suspicious. I don't like his sudden appearance. I don't like what it reminds me of.

"Like hades you're doing nothing. Why are you following me?"

"I'm not following you. I'm uh…" Favonius looks around him like the answer (lie) will magically appear out of thin air. "Hanging out with my fruit basket!" Favonius cries triumphantly.

"Yeah there's no way I'm buying that."

"Ugh fine. I'm working. Running errands for Cupid and whatnot. I'm a very busy god you know."

"Hmm well in that case I wouldn't want to hold you up on your very 'important' job. You can leave now."

Favonius makes no move to leave. Instead he continues to awkwardly stand here staring at me and beginning to make me feel a little awkward too. I make a shooing gesture and Favonius still stands there. He clears his throat and says, " Erm well I was wondering if you could help. I haven't done this in a while and I think you could be very useful."

"What? Don't you just carry people to Cupid? How could I help with that? I'm not really strong enough to shadow travel right now."

"That's not what I meant! Cupid gave me a…different job. This time he wants me to find someone who deserves to be with someone but isn't. You know, someone who is lonely. He didn't want to find that someone himself for some reason."

"Why would you want my help then? It's not like I'm an expert on _true love _or anything."

"Yeah but you're a bit of an expert on loneliness aren't you?"

I clench my fists. What is his problem? An _expert on loneliness_? Speak for yourself Favonius!

Favonius isn't even smirking. He's just looking at me, giving me that studying look I get so often. He wasn't making fun of me he was being honest and sadly, he was right.

"Well too bad. I'm busy too. I need to find a place to stay. So if you'll excuse me-"

"Wait!" Favonius grabbed my arm. "You should stay with me! I can find a place for you to stay."

I actually do need to stay somewhere, but I don't know how Favonius would help with that.

Then again, he is a god so it's quite possible he could be very helpful.

But I don't want his help.

"No thanks," I wave his offer off and walk away. That was surprisingly easy. Maybe I'm just used to people being stubborn like Jason. I make my way past the crowd of people walking past me on both sides. I don't know where I am. Obviously somewhere busy. Then I see it. Tall and bright white and in the shape of a pencil, really hard to miss. The Washington Monument, which means I'm in Washington D.C., my home in the 1940s.

Suddenly pain shoots through my skull like a bucket of ice water is being poured into my brain, but memories flood through instead of ice.

My mother smiles and tells Bianca and I that this is our new home. _Look, _she says, _this is where I met your father. You're safe here._

Bianca laughs when I find her at hide and seek.

My father holds my mother's broken form in his arms. She's not moving. Bianca and I don't dare move. And then she disappears and I'm standing by a silvery river. A monster tells me to jump in so I wont have to remember what I just saw, but I don't want to forget. I fight and struggle but in the end I'm tossed in like trash.

Someone is bending over me. He has blonde hair and light blue eyes. Who is he?

"Thank the gods you're awake," he says and I realize he's real, not a memory. I sit up and he moves back. I recognize him now. Will Solace, son of Apollo. I sit up with a bolt

"What am I doing here?" I demand. "I left!"

Will looks confused. "Um what? Left where?"

I look around and realize that I am not back at camp. In fact I am in a room that I have never seen before. It looks like someone's bedroom and I'm guessing it belongs to Will. There is a lot of blue and yellow, which clashes together horribly. At least most of the hideous yellow walls are hidden by posters of bands. I am not okay with this setting even if the posters feature bands that I actually like.

"What am I doing here?" I ask.

"You blacked out while you were in the middle of crossing a road. You almost got run over," he answered casually.

"Well that's fantastic, but why am I _here _in your room?"

"Hey man you should be grateful I took you here. Otherwise you would have been taken to a hospital."

"So?"

Will sighed exasperatedly, "So once they found out that you had no parents, at least any mortal ones, you would be taken to a foster home."

He does have a point there, but most people would have backed up from my hostile tone and the fact that he didn't only makes me more rebellious.

"Yeah well I didn't need your help. I could've just shadow traveled out if I had to."

"Bitch please. I helped heal you after the war. I know you're not fully recovered. It's bad enough that you shadow traveled here."

"And how lucky for me that I shadow traveled to exactly where you were," I retorted sarcastically, but it was halfhearted. Will had caught me by surprise with his stubborn attitude and the "bitch please."

"Yeah lucky you," he says lightly. "Now you have a place to stay too and like an actual couch to sleep on."

"What?!"

"Oh you don't have a choice. Besides my mom always wanted to have another son."

"Oh so I didn't need to go to a foster home. You already planned on adopting me."

"No. That was my mom."

"Whatever."

Will stood up and offered me a hand, when I ignored it he pulled me up anyway and dragged me out of the room.

"Come on," he said. "you should eat something death boy."

"Don't call me that," I said on instinct now. I guess I'm just going to have to get used to arguing pointlessly with Will. There wasn't really any point in arguing with him since he's so stubborn. Also, food. I need food.

Will lives in an apartment so the living room is right down the hall from his room. And as soon as I enter the living room I decide that I don't need food after all. Favonius has followed me here and he's sitting back on the couch, comfortably and smugly at my obvious discomfort.

"What are you doing here?" I exclaim.

He smirks and says, "Oh Will invited me here. Isn't that nice of him?"

I round on Will in an instant. "Why did you let him in?" I demand.

"Whoa there this is my home and I thought you said you weren't interested in sharing it." I would've protested, but Will covered my mouth with his hand. He's bolder than I thought. Will continues, "I let him in because he also needs a place to stay and he also found me as fast as he could and brought me to you so I could save your ass."

That makes me take a step back. I'm just getting so many surprises today. Jason surprised me. Will surprised me. And now Favonius surprised me. It's not even my birthday since I turned 15 a couple weeks ago. I'm surprised and embarrassed that Favonius actually bothered to find a healer for me. Not many people have ever thought of helping or even thought that I might even need help. It's not really their fault though. I reject help even when I know I need it. And I'm supposed to be fixing that which is why I turn to Favonius and Will (awkwardly) and say "Thank you. I'm sorry you had to go to so much trouble for me."

Will raises his eyebrows. "So you argue with me for helping you, but you see Favonius and suddenly you're grateful?" Will asks. "In that case I'm definitely keeping this god around. I'm going to need him if I have to deal with you."

"What now?!" I ask.

Will laughs, "Yep definitely keeping him. And don't even think about leaving."

"Like you could stop me."

Will and Favonius laugh and I realize I wasn't arguing with him. I was bantering! I wonder if this means the end of the world has begun. That would suck after we went to so much trouble to stop Gaea from ending the world.

"Well since I have two people over for a sleepover we should figure out sleeping arrangements."

Oh gods. I know I had a moment of comfort there but things got awkward for me really fast. There is not enough room in this apartment for me to sleep alone.

"Since I'm a great host, I'll let you two have the bedroom."

Yep I was right about this being awkward. "But there's only one bed," I say.

"I'm sure you can both hold back from attacking each other," Will replies. I wince. Did he have to make that sound so sexual? Favonius smirks and I hope it's not because he realized what that sounded like too.

"Well it's getting dark. We should go to bed Nico," Favonius says making it clear that yes, he noticed what it sounded like.

"You get the floor," I say making it clear that I would kick his immortal ass if he made fun of me again.

Will saved me. "Nico needs to eat first," he said and I was never happier to see that son of Apollo.

"You can eat something too," Will told Favonius. He held up a bag of ambrosia, "I've got it covered," he said and followed us into the kitchen.

We sat down at a wood table that had a lot of marks in it and a vase with two sad looking flowers in it. Will got out some microwaveable pizza and put it in the microwave. While the microwave made a sound like it was dying for a couple minutes, we talked. Or Will and Favonius talked and I sort of listened. It's hard to listen while you're thinking and I was thinking pretty hard. I was trying to make sense of my memories. It shouldn't have been so hard, but it was. I only saw glimpses of my past and they weren't enough. It was like I had only been given three pieces to a million-piece puzzle.

Will's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "Nico?"

"What?" I ask.

"I asked you if you're already enrolled in a school."

"Um no."

"Well then you can go to school with me."

"What?! You can't just decide that for me!"

"Oh yes I can. And so can my mom. I dare you to argue with her when she gets back."

So that's where he gets his stubbornness. Favonius looks like he's trying hard not to laugh. Stupid, cocky, god. I wonder if he would last a day in a mortal high school. To be honest I'm not sure I could since I've never been to one. I get education from the dead, not mortal teachers. I guess I'm going to learn whether I can make it or not, 'cause Will wont let me do otherwise.

"Just please tell me it's not a military boarding school," I say.

"Uh no. It's a nice art school."

I could work with that.

"Alright. I'm going to bed now," I say.

Will brought Favonius a sleeping bag and told us to try not to destroy anything before he left. Once he's gone, I look at Favonius for a second. I feel kind of bad about making him sleep on the floor. I doubt I could even sleep tonight; I have too much to think about. So I might as well let Favonius sleep okay. I step towards him. "Hey, you can sleep on the bed tonight. I'll take the floor."

Favonius looks amused and raises his eyebrows. "That's nice of you," he says. "Here take the sleeping bag."

I take the sleeping bag and crawl into it. It feels like how I imagine a cocoon feels like. I wonder if when the butterfly finally comes out of its cocoon it remembers its past life. I think its lucky if it does remember. Even if it thinks being a caterpillar sucked, at least it knows it got better, at least it isn't going out of its mind trying to figure out how they ended up in a world that has changed while they were gone and don't remember what happened before. I know its lucky if it remembers because sometimes I feel like that butterfly that doesn't remember.

**Okay so Will is in this story, but what happened between him and Nico in BoO didn't happen and there's no romance. Sorry. It's just a Favonius and Nico love story. Btw what should I call this ship? I'm thinking Fanico or something.**

**Review!**


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